City - Regular Meeting

Okay, it's 6 o'clock. So, it is very nice to see everybody here in the council chambers this evening. We appreciate you being here. Before we call the meeting to order, I would like to ask uh get to get a community blessing from Pastor Doug Young. If you come forward, please pastor. I'll stand. Heavenly Father, God of all creation, as we gather once again in this chamber, we ask your blessings on all of us. We assemble this evening to make decisions for the prosperity and the forward progress of our city. May we use only our best skills in judgment, keeping ourselves impartial and neutral as we consider the merits and pitfalls of each matter that is placed before us. We ask for your divine wisdom in all of our efforts today. May we always act in accordance with what is best for Losanos and our fellow citizens according to your purpose for all of us. May we use our resources wisely and make decisions that promote the common good. We recognize our responsibility to the past and to the future, the rights and needs of both individuals and our city at large. As your trusted servants, Lord, we seek your blessings on our deliberations and all of our efforts today. Bless our mayor, Mike Amibal, our council members, Deborah Lewis, Mitsy Perez, Rafiio Yamis, and Marcus Chavez. Bless all of our city staff, Lord, abundantly. May you provide for all of their needs both professionally and personally. May they continue to prosper and be in good health. We thank you for each of them and their commitment to serve our community. We ask all these things in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Amen. Thank you. Thank you, Pastor Young. I call this meeting to order for April 15, 2026. And if Chief, we could have the pledge, please. United States. One nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all.

Okay, we are ready for roll call, please. Here,

here. here. And the first item of item four is consideration to approve the agenda. Um, unfortunately, when we made our agenda, we weren't aware that uh, Council Member Chavez would not be present here today. So, I'm requesting to remove item 9B, which is the increase of elected officials salary. I really feel that we need a full console here before we make any kind of decisions like that. You'll still be welcome to make any comments you want during the public forum, but um for the public that they want to uh speak on that item, you're still welcome to speak on it, but it'll be brought back to us at a future date and it'll be advertised again. So, I'm making that request to the council for a motion, please.

Mayor, I'd like to make a motion to approve uh the agenda minus item 9B.

Second. Okay, we have a motion and second as stated. Any further questions or comments? Not hearing any. All in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed. Eyes have it. Now we have a few presentations. So, our first presentation is employee of the month and Haley, if you could come forward. Haley Leonard is our employee of the month. Let's see. This is for the month of March. So happy that you I want to I just want to say a few words. Haley brings a positive, welcoming spirit to everything she does, and I can contest to that. She goes out of her way to support her co-workers and makes people feel included. She also represents the city incredibly well at planning commission meetings, always interacting with the public with with a professional, patient, and warm way. Haley sets a great example of public service and we're grateful for the impact she has on both our team and our community and we really want to congratulate you because you are a shining star in the city. So, it's my honor to have this certificate of recognition presented to Haley Leonard for planning technician community and economic development department in recogn recognition of your outstanding performance and dedicated service to the city of Lasis. Congratulations.

Okay, explorers come forward. Welcome. Let's get over here. There's a lot of you. So, it is his explorers uh week. I think it's a week, but anyway, I have a proclamation recognizing Las Vegas Police Explorers Post 864. These men and women are such a vital part of our community. They volunteer. They help our police department. I know a lot of police officers uh that work for our police department. The sworn officers used to be explorers. So this is a beginning in a lot of different pathways. So whereas law enforcement exploring common commonly referred to as police explorers is an American vocational educational program that allows local youth to explore a career in law enforcement by working with local law enforcement officers. And whereas law enforcement explorers programs were were founded on Jul were founded on July 12th, 1937 as an affiliate of the Boy Scouts of America. The program is available to qualified local youth between the ages of 14 and 20. And whereas the Las Manis Police Explorer Post 864 has been an active program in our community since the 1990s, our police explorers participate in the following weekly training covering various laws enforcement topics, ride alongs, and our patrol staff community service events and conferences and competitions. And whereas on March 28th, 2026, the Las Police Explorers Post 864 participated in 2026 Mercur County Police Explorer Competition where our explorers competed

against all of the Explorers Post in Merced County. And whereas our explorers scored first place and second place on Ride Along simulation, where do those hold up the first and second place trophies? They there. Okay. And let's see on the right along and second place male obstacle course. That there. There we go. Congratulations. Uh third place in written examination procedural law. Congratulations. Second place in crime scene search. Congratulations. second place in firearms qualification and second place in team tug-of-awar. So that should have been all of you on the tug-of-war. Correct. Yeah. Whereas the city of Lasanis and the Laspanis Police Department are committed to providing a comprehensive training program focusing on leadership, competition, character development, good citizenship, and service to the community. Thou for there now therefore be it proclaimed that Michael S. Samville mayor and the city council of the city of Laspanis do hereby recognize and congratulate the explorers and advisers of Laspanis Police Explorer Post 864 on their accomplishments at the 2026 Merced County Police Explorers Competition. The dedication, effort, and commitment to the law enforcement field by these youth is much admired by your city council and the residents. So, congratulations So, let's see. We'll have you'll take a picture in together.

Thank you all very much. Appreciate it.

Oh my god.

Oh my god. So, this these two girls right here are two city clerks, city clerk, assistant city clerk, and they do so much work for the city, a lot of work for the city council, a lot of work for me. uh we keep them busy, but the city clerk is really for the public to make sure all the information, transparency, everything is going out to the community and you have the availability of getting information to for you from the city. So that's very very very important proclamation recognizing the 57th annual professional municipal clerk's week. Whereas the office of the professional municipal cler clerk, a timehonored and vital part of the local government, exists throughout the world. And whereas the office of the professional municipal clerk is the oldest among public servants. And whereas the office of the professional municipal clerk provides the professional link between the citizens and local governing bodies and agencies of government at the other levels. And whereas professional municipal clerks have pledged to be ever mindful of their neutrality, their impartiality and and equal service to all. And whereas a professional municipal clerks serve as anformational center on functions of local government and community. And whereas the professional municipal clerks continually strive to improve the administration of the affairs of the office of the professional municipal clerk through participation in education programs, seminars, workshops, and annual meetings of their state, county, and international professional

organizations. It is most appropriate that we recognize the accomplishments of the office of the professional municipal clerk. Thou therefore be a proclaimed that I, Michael S. Samville, Mayor, and the city council, the city of Lasanis, do hereby recognize the week of May 3rd through 9th, 2026 as professional municipal clerk week, and further extend appreciation to our professional municipal clerks, Lucy Melanie, and Fiona Lynn, for their vital services they perform and the exemplary dedication to the community they represent. Thank you both so very very much. Okay, next is new employee introductions and we'll go to our city manager.

Good evening, mayor. I do have a couple employees today to be introduced. Uh first we'll start with public works. Um director B and since they are all here today um after the introductions could you please stay um say a few words. Uh thank you uh Mr. Mayor, council members and city manager. We have um three we have one new employee and we have two promotional employees in public works. First up we have uh Tony Vasquez. He's a new part-time maintenance worker.

Come on. Come on up. And he's working uh in water and he so he assists the full-time maintenance workers in water with uh maintaining the wells and doing odd um odd jobs as needed. Uh next up we have Patrick Arenbell who is the facilities manager uh a promotion to the new facilities manager. He started in 2017 as a streets maintenance worker um when I was the foreman in streets. He actually started under me. Um and then he was promoted to uh an inspector in 20 22 23 2 or three years and then has recently been promoted to the facilities manager. Um, and then next up we have Jacqueline Garcia Wright who is has been promoted to admin assistant and she started in finance and then she transferred over to public works and then she went back to finance and then now she's back at public works. So, so she was an engineering tech and has been um promoted got a promoter I'm a loser again. Um, and she's so she's been promoted to admin assistant and she works out of the Madison office. So, uh, who's gonna go first?

You have something to say? Yes. Thank you. Oh, thank you very much for your time. Um, pleasure to meet you all. Glad to be here. Thank Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Uh, look forward to, you know, keep moving on with the city and, you know, doing a better job than in this department. It's, uh, new, but I'm willing to take the challenge. Thank you very much, Jack. So, obviously I'm always looking to professionally, you know, move around and I really appreciate the um opportunity to be promoted within the public works department because I really do enjoy working under William and at the Madison office. So excited for this new opportunity.

Well, great. Congratulations to all three of you. Mayor, unfortunately, the other four officers are tied up and unable to come here tonight. So, we'll go ahead and uh introduce them at the next council meeting. Okay, that sounds really good. Thank you.

Okay, next is our public forum. Members of the public may address the city council on any item of public interest that's within the jurisdiction of the city council, includes agenda, not agenda items. No action will be taken on non-aggenda items. you have five minutes to speak and um you're welcome to come forward and speak to us on any item of public interest. And if you want to speak to us about the council wages, you're welcome to do that, too. So, please uh introduce yourself so we have on the record and you're welcome to speak. Welcome.

Well, good evening, mayor and members of the city council. My name is Maria Phillips and I'm the executive director of the American Hero Initiative. It's a local nonprofit dedicated to supporting our disabled veterans by providing financial assistance for critical home and auto repairs. I want to start what I'm going to say with a brief narrative. Disabled veterans feel a certain way about asking for help. And unfortunately, they don't like to do it. But over and over again in emails, applications, phone calls, and voicemails, there is one word that keeps popping up, and it's inadequate. They can't provide for their families the way they want to. They can't afford what seems so simple to others, like a new set of tires. Can't drive their kids safely to school or take themselves to an appointment. My husband had that feeling and developed our nonprofit mission statement from that. That feeling of inadequacy when something goes wrong that is so out of your reach and out of your control you can't stand it. Why can't you do what you wish you could? The American Hero Initiative wants you to know that we see you and we want to help you. Our funds aren't where we wish they were, but we will try our hardest to help you. If you can't, if we can't, we will tell you other organizations that may be able to help you. And that, my friends, is the only reason that my being here tonight matters. Today, I'm honored to share with you an exciting and meaningful uh community event that we're organizing. It's called the 250th birthday celebration of the United States, and it's going to be July 5th this year, 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. at the A Complex. This event is more than a celebration. It is a tribute to 250 years of freedom made possible by the courage and sacrifice of the men and

women who have served our country. Yes, we are charging a nominal fee of $10. Veterans are only $5 with proper identification. However, the ticket price gets you a hot dog, chips, and a drink. It will also get you into all the amazing things that I'm about to tell you. The rest of your ticket fee goes directly to our nonprofit and directly helps those disabled veterans that so desperately need all of our help. We'll begin our day with a powerful opening ceremony dedicated to the veterans who help shape our nation. It'll include the color guard presentation, national anthem, moment of reflection for fallen heroes, a tribute recognizing veterans by branch of service. This will be throughout the day. a branch per hour will be honored and special recognition for local veterans and their stories. We have reaching reached out to our local VFW and American Legion as well as surrounding ones. We hope they all join us and allow us to honor them and their constituents. Our goal is to create a welcoming, family-friendly event that begins the that brings the community together. Planned activities are live music and entertainment featuring local musicians of all level uh throughout the day. Vendor marketplace, local businesses, artisans, organizations showcasing products and services. We have two separate kids zones, games, activities, crafts, bouncers, signing of the declaration, fake one, with quill pens. uh veteran thank you cards where I will be distributing them to VA facilities in the surrounding cities along with interactive experiences for families. To top it all off, we're making a very large American flag out of the handprints of the children in our community. After the paint dries, we would love to dedicate it to the city. A we will also have a special place displaying veteran photos and

biographies honoring their service and preserving their stories. This will be called the wall of heroes providing we also have community resource booths providing information and support services to the community but especially for veterans and their families. So I'm here today not only to inform you but to invite the businesses of Los Bonos to part for partnerships and making this event a success. We are actively seeking vendors, sponsors, companies, and community leaders willing to support the event financially or through inind donations. All proceeds will directly benefit our mission of assisting veterans in need. We will also be doing a silent auction and are actively looking for items and experiences. We welcome all performers of all ages and we're also asking the community members to pit to submit photos of your loved ones past and present that are veterans and give me a short biography. So why does this event matter so much? The event is an opportunity to honor those who served our country, strengthen community connections, support local businesses and talent, raise awareness and funds to directly assist these veterans. So in closing, I would be deeply grateful to the city's council support in helping us promote the event. Connect with connect me with local businesses and organizations to ensure that this event is a successful one. Together we can create a meaningful celebration that only honors 250 years of our nature's history but nation's history that is.

Yeah. Thank you. Thank you so much for your comments. We look forward to that event. Anyone else, please come forward. You're welcome to speak. Please state your name for the recorded record.

Yes. My name is Blanch George and I live in the downtown area. I apologize. I'm not dressed appropriately, but it's kitten season and everything's a go with kitties. Um, I know that the chief will explain this in further detail. I hope I'm not taking chief some of your information. Um, but first I' I'd like to thank you guys for all acknowledgements. I really appreciate that and so do the individuals that love the animals and and are supportive. But this week is actually animal control appreciation week. And um we have some individuals and I'm reading because I just don't want to make a mistake. Um but the these individuals serve with purpose that are at our shelter. They balance intake with adoption with rescues seamlessly. And this team gets along well together. They're a force to reckon with and we're lucky and you've heard me say this before. I see them daily. We're lucky to have them. Um I do want to there are some special recognitions that I know that will be um said, but I do want to mention their names. Um we're looking at uh Jason Martin. He's the code enforcement officer. Uh Mariah Estrada, she is the also a code enforcement officer and we have two shelter attendants and I really feel embarrassed about calling them attendants. All these individuals have grown way beyond their job titles or when they were first started.

And um these attendants are Suzanne Cardardoso uh Cardardoso and uh the shelter attendant Adrien Jaso. Like I said, these individuals have grown um in their jobs. The young girls that started as attendants, I mean, they're amazing. Um they juggle so much and they really put their heart in the sleeve and they are really great individuals representing you all um for the city of Laspanos. Uh they deal with a lot. So I just wanted to go ahead and mention that. And the second thing I do want to mention, I'm trying to be good to try to stay in the new time that's going to start to be aotted. Um, but I do want to mention, and I know you're supportive of this, but again, the bud it's budget time. I didn't bring Gracie this time. Um, but I do want to let you know how important it is to support the chief and the staff that are asking for certain budget money. They have some tight goals and they're going to succeed, continue to succeed those goals. And I urge you and with all my all my 16K followers are urging you to support the shelter. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments. Welcome. Please state your name for the recorded record. Thank you.

Uh Arasmo, uh resident of the downtown area. Um, I just want to first take a moment to recognize the city council for hosting a very successful state of the city address yesterday under the leadership of Mayor Amabil. I believe that this event will continue to be as successful in the years to come. It was very transparent, a lot of great information from staff. Uh, I think it puts a lot of folks in a better place in terms of the trust with the city and the resources that are being used. Um I do want to speak about transparency, good governance, um because that was one of the points that was discussed yesterday and it's relate relative to the agenda item that got pulled off in regards to city council pay. Um there are still a lot of questions in my humble opinion uh about the total compensation package um in terms of benefits, pensions, reimbursements, mileage, all those things that really give a really good picture of the overall benefit that elected officials receive in the city of Los Spanos. And I don't believe that report, the second report uh released by this city addresses that in a way that puts the community at ease. Um, I think had this council done this in a different manner, it wouldn't have been met with the resistance uh that you've seen online and probably even some emails that come through. I don't know. And you wouldn't probably have me up here giving these comments. U, but I will say that the former councilman Evan Sanders uh through social media media did expand on the benefits that council members receive. He did confirm that pension, healthc care benefits, cell phone, um, and other forms of compensation. And assembly member Deborah Lewis um, at the April 4th or last council meeting did confirm or not, excuse me, March 4th council meeting did confirm she makes more on the air resource board than she does on the city council. So, there's a lot of figures there that are still not

shown in this report. Um, and so for me, that's the concern that I have. It's about good governance, transparency, and accountability with taxpayer dollars. Uh, and this stems from my frustration, I think even the community's frustration uh, and what has taken place in the past years. Uh, the other point that I want to make mention of is that I was looking at the staff report and it makes mention that the mayor, um, would receive, and if it's law, then so be it. But it says that um the council it says however directly elected mayors such as in Losanos are eligible for an increase to go into effect during the current terms. Um in my research and again I'm not a legal scholar and attorney and I don't I think I've taken constitutional law and I've read a lot of public policy and California code sections but in my my humble research uh I was looking at the the city code in terms of city council compensation. I was looking at uh California government code 36516 35 36516.1 and 36516.5. Um and in there it doesn't make mention of the the mayor um increase taking effect immediately. Uh it sounds contrary and then I just was looking because someone had made mention that u because of I believe a a recent not so recent uh piece of legislation that was passed u that lry's increases um I was trying to figure out what other cities have done and so the city of Coachella um had a memo that they released that made mention of increases uh and in there it says that the council um would receive it during their next election. So, I there is some confusion on my part. Uh, and I'm hoping that city staff um will update that or confirm uh that is indeed the case and the report. Again, I'm not a legal scholar, so this is just me doing some quick research in my free time. Um, this I think is a very important issue for the community. You've seen a lot of the engagement. Uh,

I think that this council really needs to think long and hard before you come to the voters and ask for a pay increase in terms of what have you done for the community? I think that's the common question. Um, and on another point, just kind of backtracking here, uh, should that indeed be the case that the council that the mayor does get his increase immediately, I think it would be in the best interest for transparency and good governance that the the mayor would recuse himself uh, from this item uh, when it is taken up just because of direct impacts that he would immediately receive. Uh, I know this may not be well received by this council, um, but this is, I think, from what I've seen, discussions I've had with community members across town, um, their their discomfort and, um, why they do not trust government. Um, and so I think you could do a lot here to fix the trust in the community. So, with that said, thank you for your time and I appreciate uh, everything that you do for the community. Thank you. Thank you very much for your comments and if it comes back it'll we'll have everything down. Welcome in. Please state your name for the record.

Anna, excuse me. Anna McCaulay. Uh still trying to get rid of this rough horseness. We've been here 29 years last month. I'm going to speak on several items. I agree with so much that our previous speaker just said. Um, we've been here 29 years. We still have thousands of people. All we've done in this time is build houses. We're just a sea of roofs in this town. We don't have any major living wage jobs. We had Kagomi, um, Ingamar and maybe Liberty Farms, um, Morning Star. They were here when we got here. And there's nothing here that presents a viable living wage for most of the people that are here. Uh if you think fast food is going to do it, well, hallelujah. But it's ridiculous what you pay at the if you go in there. And um it just doesn't add up. I agree that I have a question on this this these wages, I mean these salaries that are being proposed. I don't think there's enough transparency and I think when you when people know that the all the benefits that you get, nobody's going home hungry here, you're all getting something. You get a lot of benefits that are at the pack taxpayers's expense. So, uh there's a real concern there. Um, and I think that when we don't have a lot of people um, living making major living wages here that they're going over the hill, that speaks to something that's wrong. We have city, we have council members, we have city managers or uh city um employees, department heads going to who knows where, Washington, LA, wherever to attend these events and speak up all the positives about this city, but something

is wrong because we don't have the jobs here. are we are we a small mentality small hometown mentality when we go to these places because we don't see the results for all the money being spent. So there's a there's a real issue with that. Um but these I think I've said enough on that issue. Um we need to figure it out. The other thing is um I was on the planning commission I believe six years. I did two years and then a four-year term years ago. And I'll tell you what, if you're not on the planning commission before you come to city council seat, you're not getting there. You're not you're not in the seat in city council with a real good understanding of how city government works. I never chose to go any further than the city planning commission. and I wanted no elected office, but I was in federal government for many decades. And I've seen it from I've seen government work from different angles, but you know, I think we we need to make and there's no I'm not disparaging anybody. I know that um Councilwoman Lewis was on the planning commission years ago, and that is the best training before you even attempt to get a council seat. And I think our rules need to change where you've got to have at least four maybe six years of recent history in the planning commission before you even apply to be a council member because it's the council should not be the first seat where you figure it out where you try to figure it out and you're going to spend at least a year or two years trying to figure out how did this all work. Well, I think planning commission is really uh a place that needs to be part of your recent history. Um, I think that I I learned a lot when I was on the planning commission. I was already grateful for that. The other commissions have some value, but I don't think any of them have the value for having a council seat as we would in the um

planning commission. Um, and I think that makes I mean, you know, I don't have a problem with anybody trying to come up here and learn at all, but we shouldn't be a training ground at the sound. We've got too much going on. And I think we've got to have uh there's just a lot of disconnects in this city where people don't understand what's going on. Why don't we have the jobs? Um why are we still building a sea of roofs? When we came to uh when we ca left Japan, we were stationed there and it was a sea of roofs. We came to Colorado Springs and it back then it was not a sea of roofs. It was wonderful. and and when we come here and we see this sea of roofs over 29 years, um we've got to figure this thing out. It's got to work a different way. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments, Sam. Please, anyone come forward that you would like to speak?

Welcome. Please state your name for the record. Hi, Miguel Aleandre. Welcome. I mean, welcome. Thank you for having me, mayor, city staff, and council members. Um, first, I have a couple things. I want to congratulate Haley Leonard. Um, ever since I came to LB, she was amazing, very helpful with whether it was a compound, the reformer studio, or um, Smoky Joe's Billards, as well as Stacy. Always very friendly, always very helpful with that with getting me the answers I needed needed on where to go. and as well, William, if Tony Vasquez ever says he can't lift or do something, he's lying because he's a member of my gym and he's strong. I know. I seen him. Um, but other than that, so a little bit of a story time. 2019 around October, September, I came to Los Vanos with an idea to start a business. I found a location near the BaskinRobins Shopping Center. They had um mentioned to me that, yeah, I was available. There was two suites. I was going to combine them both. And I was like, yes, let's do it. It was a gung-ho decision from a young entreprene entrepreneur entrop a young business owner um trying to start something new and um yeah I got the paper signed everything went well um they're like yes it's yours and I went to the city not knowing I should have gone to the city first and they told me no you can't have that spot there's not enough parking spots for your business in this shopping plaza so recently there's been some city events that have been happening that have been great like the egg Easter on. Um, and then the opening day at the at the ballpark and people were messaging me asking me if I can come up and talk about parking issues and stuff like that. Why isn't there enough parking issues? So, I bring up parking again. Um, are is the city itself being held to the same standards that businesses are being held when it comes to opening a business and building a park? I understand a lot of these parks are existing already. Um, so I guess all I

ask for is in future building of parks or places we're going to host community events, can we focus a little more on the parking so that way people are not worrying about getting citations or having somewhere to park like me for the Easter egg and I had to park two blocks away trying to hold a newborn and two babies when my wife is holding her purse and all that was a little difficult. So, I could see the frustration people trying to park somewhere where they shouldn't, but of course they shouldn't. Um, other than that, I want to invite people to the supervisor forum on Monday, April 20th, where myself and the incumbent Scott SA will be asked questions and it'll be a get it'll be a chance for people to get to know us and see our visions and see what we think about certain issues. Other than that, the event that Maria is holding as well for the um American Hero Initiative, that'd be a great that's a great uh thing that's helping veterans that are in need of help. Another one is the comedy show that the VFW is holding up to help veterans as well. And then besides that, um, Relay for Life, uh, May 23rd and May 24th from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. It's a 24-hour event where someone is walking 24 hours from the groups that are made. And all that, all the funds, all the proceeds go straight to Relay for Life, which helps cancer research and helps uh anyone who has any cancer related issues get to their appointments or get the support they need. Um, other than that, is there another event? There's a lot of things going on. Oh, and congratulations on the state of the city. It was a wonderful event. It was really well put out and um, I hope we continue to do that. Thank you very much. Have a beautiful night.

Thank you for your comments.

Good evening, Mayor Council. Um, I would like to just take a couple minutes to introduce um, Lieutenant Commander. He's the new commander of the area. Los Angeles area CHP Joey Daniels and um he's new to our area. He's commanding our local station. Uh we've had uh several good conversations already and we've talked about plans. So I'll turn it over to him. I think he's going to serve our area very well. Welcome.

Uh good evening. Thank you. U like Chief Rea was saying uh Lieutenant Joey Daniels. Uh I just uh took command of the Los Banos office March 1st. Uh so I'm a new commander to the area. Prior to this, I was in the Modesto office uh working for a captain there. So, um it's nice to um uh be in a small community um compared to Modesto, I should say. Um and uh it's a little slower here uh as far as u what I'm used to doing, but I'm looking forward to that because I'm hoping it'll give me a chance to get out in the community some more um to events. Even though the city doesn't really fall within our jurisdiction, but I I think it's important for the high patrol to be involved in the community that we serve. and uh attend events uh and then uh meet with the public and just support the public and the city however we can. Uh like the chief was saying, we've had several meetings and um I'm working on some things to provide some training or services to the uh police department that will hopefully hope this help the city. Um good news is no charge. Uh so I know free things are always uh um uh welcome. So uh I I just want to introduce myself. I'm a resource. Um, if uh anybody has questions in regards to the high patrol, um, I'm available for questions. Uh, just feel free to reach out. Um, so I hope to see maybe some of you at uh, community events and, um, throughout the city in the future. So,

great. Great to have you in our community. I'm happy to be here. Thank you. So, you all have a good evening. Okay. Thank you very much. Anyone else please come forward public forum? Okay. I do not see or hear anybody coming forward. So I will close before I close the public forum. We do have a letter. Correct. Yeah. Luc,

you want to read that into the record? My name is Sanchez and I hope this message finds you well. I am writing to share my thoughts on a recent discussions about salary increases for city council members as I am unable to attend tonight's meeting in person. I believe that everyone deserves a raise, especially given the rising costs we all face. However, the proposed increase seems excessive. If the concern is that volunteer council members have not received raises in years, we should focus on establishing policies for regular salary reviews to address this issue fairly. Moreover, I am troubled by the practice of council members voting on their own raises as it undermines the necessary checks and balances in our governance. Instead, raises should be formally requested and decided by constituents, ensuring transparency and accountability. This raises significant red flags that need careful consideration. Thank you for your attention to this matter. I look forward to hearing more about how we can ensure fairness and transparency in city council compensation practices. Best regards, Khaled Sanchez, Laspanis, District One community member. And that's all I have.

That's all. Okay. Thank you very much. I will be talking a lot about those questions during my comments at the end of the of the meeting. And we will move on. All right. Before we move on, I just want to state that uh starting May 20th because we have to do work in the council chambers to bring it up to new standards that the state is requiring by July 1, uh this chamber is going to be closed down for a while and we'll be having our meetings at the Losanis Community Center which is a 6457th Street. Is that right, Joe? Good. So, I just want to announce that before I move on. and we're not sure exactly how long that's going to take. So, we know it's going to be before July 1. That's all we know. Okay, with that, we'll go into consideration approval. Item eight is consideration approval of the consent agenda. And Lucy, if you could read off the consent agenda, please.

Items on the consent agenda are as follows. warrant numbers 257086 through 257257 in the amount of 914,3232. City council specialing special meeting minutes for March 9th, 2026. City Council meeting minutes for March 18, 2026. City council meeting minutes for April 1st, 2026. City Council resolution number 7078 accepting the construction of Sunrise Ranch Park as complete and authorizing the filing of a notice of completion with the Merced County Recorder for Ronny's Inc. City Council resolution number 7079 approving and authorizing the city manager to execute amendment number two to the professional services agreement with Galvin Preservation Associates, Inc. for environmental clearance and landscape architecture services for the Pioneer Road complete streets project and amend the fiscal year two 2025 through 26 budget by increasing appropriations in the Laspanis regional transportation impact fee fund in the amount of $143,512. City Council resolution number 7080 accepting public improvements for Quail Meadows at Stone Creek, the Villages 5 Base 3, unit 4 for Anderson Homes. City Council resolution number 7081 approving the acceptance of a $2,250 Best Friends Animal Society grant and amending the fiscal year 202526 budget by increasing the appropriation amount for expenditures and revenues in

the amount of $2,250. And the items are to be um approved as submitted. Great. Thank you, Lucy. Is there any council member that would like to pull off any of these items for further discussion? Okay. Is there anyone from the public that would like to dis talk about any of these items A through H? You're welcome to speak on them. Okay. I do not see anyone. So, with that, I'll I'll entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda as submitted. Mayor, I'd like to approve this consent agenda as submitted.

Second. Okay, we have a motion and a second as stated. That includes resolution 7078, 7079, 7080, and 7081. Any further questions or comments? All in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed. Eyes have it.

Next item is a public hearing. you if you ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch challenge the proposed action as described in court, you may be limited to only raising those issues that you or someone else raised within the public hearing. And this also includes written correspondence. Our public hearing is to receive public comment and consideration of approval of an annual adjustment to development impact fees to reflect changes in the engineering news. uh record in construction cost index the ENR CCI for 2026 and to bring us up to date on this item will be our community and economic development director Soua Elms.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor and City Council. So, as some of you may recall, um I have come for the last oh several years since um our uh development impact fee, our current nexus has been adopted for an annual increase to keep up with the construction cost index. Uh just some background, back in January of 2020, the city council approved development impact fee justification study, which is also known as a nexus study. The development impact fees are established in conformance with the requirements of the mitigation fee act. A fee cannot include costs for existing deficiencies. An example of this would be for a traffic impact fee. Um, if you have an existing deficiency at an intersection, it's operating at a uh level of service um F and you are wanting to include those that cost of uh making that intersection better within your needs within your uh traffic impact fee. You would not be able to include that within um that needs analysis. So it cannot include existing deficiencies. The fee is to fund costs used to maintain the existing level of service or meet an adopted level of service that is consistent with the general plan using traffic transportation impact fee. Um the level of service at intersections is uh LOSD level of service D at intersections. That's just one element. There's many elements within the traffic impact fee, excuse me, within the development impact fees that I'll go over. Um, the development impact fees do not pay for operation and maintenance of capital facilities or city staffing

costs. Development impact fees are separated from the general fund and from other city budget funds or accounts containing fees collected for other purposes. Uh the annual adjustment um is uh in accordance with resolution number 6163 which states impact fees shall be modified annually each July 1st and it's to be done in accordance with the engineering news record construction cost index and it's what's reported for the 12 month period ending in April. The adjustment according to the engineering news record construction cost index ending in April 2026 was a 0.4% increase. Um as some of you may recall last year's increase at the end of April uh April 2025 uh was 0.1% increase. So this increase would be applied to all development impact fees and will go into effect July 1st, 2026. California government code requires that um any adjustment and development impact fees have to have a 90day period before they can be implemented. That's why we're bringing that before you in in uh April. Um, so this comparison chart uh lists all of the land use types, the current fee for those land use types, and then what that 04% um looks like, what that reflects as. So for single family, um, it'll be over 33,000. So that's per unit, per dwelling unit. For multifamily, it's over 26,000. That again is per unit. um for age restricted uh those would need to have covenants

that are deed restricted um on age that's about 18,000 and then retail office institutional and industrial are asterisk because those are per every 1,000 square ft um and that is um 20,768 office is 11,109 institutional 600 711 and industrials 4541. Um according to our the environmental review and the California Environmental Quality Act, um this project would be considered exempt um from our guidelines um section 15061B3. um and it would not pertain to a physical project and it would be um SQL guidelines would be implemented at a project level once that project came forward. So the fiscal impact the 0.4% increase would ensure new development is adequately funding its share of the costs of new public facilities as the cost to construct construct these projects increase over time. So, it's very important that we keep up with this construction cost index. Um, because without that, then when the city is able to build and using the police department as a as a prime example, we used quite a bit um of the police impact fee um to to facilitate that building. And if we do not keep with construction costs and we maintain at just a flat fee, say the council decides not to approve this annual adjustment, we would not be keeping up with the costs for that

capital improvement, whether it's the police department, the fire department, water, sewer, all of the particular needs that the city has identified within our nexus study, we would not be able to keep up with the cost of those needs. So, it's very important that we keep up with that. It ensures the city does not subsidize new developments share of these facilities and that adequate funding is available when the city is ready to construct these projects. A public notice, a public hearing notice was published in the Westside Express on March 25th, 2026. Uh, local developers and the building industry association, the BIA, were directly mailed public notices on March 25th, 2026. And as of the preparation of this report, no formal comments have been received. So staff is recommending that the city council would consider opening the public hearing to receive public comments, find the proposed impact fee adjustment exempt from SQA guidelines, and adopt resolution number 7082 approving a 0.4% 4% increase to development impact fees to reflect construction cost changes in 2026 to become effective on July 1st, 2026. And that concludes my report.

Thank you, Stacy. Before we turn over to the city council, anyone like to I'm going to open up the public hearing to receive public comment and consideration on this 0.4 for increase on uh reflect change on engineering record construction costs index for 2026 as stated by Stacy. Anyone like to speak on this issue? Please come forward at the podium at this time. Thank you for that closing the public hearing. Excuse me. Just playing with you. Um, my name is Kathy Ballard and I have a question in regards to um, the cost, the engineering cost. I know it's based on other areas. I also know that the state of California and the citizens of Los Spanos are really desperately looking for Sorry, Ann. Um, either condos, um, town houses, something that our new nurses that come into town can rent. um our new teachers, all the the people were coming bringing in from outside. They can't just step in and buy a house or rent a house. So, um, I've always been asking in regards to condos, town houses, something smaller, but when I'm looking at our pricing, no wonder we can't get anyone to build them here or in the state of California. Because if they're paying $27,000 per unit and you're building something that has 10, 15, 20 units, that's a chunk um to pay in these fees. I don't know if we can um add another line for just a duplex. I mean, cuz no wonder they're just building homes because they pencil out. Um we're not building something that is desperately needed in

the city of Laspanos and like I said throughout California. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Well, I'll we'll have those questions answered at the end of the public hearing. Welcome. Welcome. Thank you. Welcome Roses resident of Laspanos. Um and I agree with Kathy uh in regards to having condos, town homes, and exact nature. I know city staff is working on that. Um my one question I have because I've heard this development impact fee conversation come up time and time again. Um, does this, and this is not a question obviously you could answer now, but does the city um release the development impact fees and how they're used on a quarterly basis, yearly basis to see where those funds go to, what they're providing in terms of public benefits. Um, just to make sure that on the public side, we know what we're getting with the development impact fees. That's that's my only question. Thank you.

We'll answer that when come to closing. Anyone else, please come forward. You're welcome to speak. Okay. I do not see anyone else. I'll close the public hearing and I'll turn it over to Stacy. Uh and let's start off the first question. Engineering costs. Uh I guess the question is that it's too too high. Was Kath is that it?

So I think the first question was regarding the cities that are used. So we use the San Francisco area. Um and that's because the um engineering news record um which is an industry standard um used for construction cost index uh it's either San Francisco which we fall within that region or Los Angeles those are the only two cities in California. Um it is nationwide um not every state is represented it's wherever you are closely within that region. Um, and Lost Mannis, we are within San Francisco within their region.

And I actually been talking a lot to uh the state about that because we're in San Francisco's. Can you believe that? I mean, it's a little bit more expensive over there than it is here. They should be a Central Valley uh number we use, not San Francisco. And the next one is condos and apartments. Yes. the fees and if there's she also talked about possibly adjusting for multifamily or adjusting for maybe um affordable housing which would be a consideration of the city council and maybe um we can discuss um at a future date as we'll see if that's a priority of the city council to bring forward

and just to let you know that I probably have had the last three months six meetings about condos, duplexes, apartments with different developers in town and I know a lot of the pro a lot of the projects that's coming forward do show those things being being built.

Uh we're way behind on that. School teachers are the perfect example, public safety officers and everything like that. And so uh so I know that is something uh the fees the cost of the fees uh the council would have to decide what you could look at one segment like talked about like condos or something like that. But remember those are all based on and this goes to Rosmo's question. Where can we find where all those fees go? Can you find that online?

You sure can. our amazing finance director did a report just a couple of months ago, AB1600 uh report. Uh Director Mareno, uh was that in December, if you can recall when you gave that last update, it's required by law annually.

Um we have to give a big report every five years, but our finance department is so awesome. They do it annually. So I'll let her if I'll I'll give her a second to pull that up. Mayor, if I may. Um, I don't recall when we presented it, but it does give a full analysis of where all the fees go and what they're used for. Uh, it's a requirement, an annual requirement.

Yeah, if I may um provide some more um things to to to think about. Um, I think impact fee when we take a look at this looking it out without the context of the cost of infrastructures maybe it's relative, right? That is to say, our current single family uh proposed fee is $33,49051. That's for the city of Lasanis. Just north of us for the city of Newman's um for the size significantly smaller than us, the impact fee for their single family is $46,384 and for their multifamily is $29,64. And that is to say, not that we are trying to go through a competition, is that each city is unique. The cost of the impact fee is directly related to the required infrastructures that is needed to service those new developments. How impact fees are typically structured is that each new developments are then pay for their cost of fair share of what those new system expansions are being done. There are absolutely community out there that went to the other extreme to where I want to stimulate growth that I want to stimulate economic developments or I want to stimulate you know new housing development. For example, city of Mandota decided that um in their impact fee program they'll go ahead and go into defer all impact fee for all development for five years. Um those are the other extremes to where that's what it take for that community to be able to stimulate growth. However, if impact fees are not collected, the only other ways for that to go to is two options. One is funded through grant. City would have to go through grant for system expansions or two, the existing residents would then have to basically subsidize for all those system expansions. Um, as we are looking at our entire infrastructures, um, director VI has his work cut out for him. We have all of our system master plans going through an update right now. Those

system master plan will identify what system expansion is going to look like to accommodate the entire growth of the city up to the general plans uh horizon which will be 2042. Right? Those are really the basis of your cost to then determine what is the cost of fair shares. So as we are continue to move forwards, there's definitely opportunity to where we would bring back the council for decisions on certain industries or certain kind of development to where you um as council and the community want to see as priority to then put some of those impact fee at a reduced or subsidized cost and then determine at that point who and what will be subsidizing those costs. So December 17th was the date we presented this to council with all of the information as to all the projects different um impact fees uh fire police and what what those

if you could have that emailed to Rosmo so I will he could have a copy of that appreciate it and that's a very good point what you said we're not trying to compare ourselves to other cities but I'm a big compon champion of new residents can't burden our exist existing residents. I mean, they have to bring something to the table that helps us that we're already here. And I said that last night, the state of the city, and we really mean that. So, we just really have to be careful. If there's a way to look at it to help those things, maybe there's another way of forgiving a fee, but not taking it away. There's other ways so we don't cut it and allow like Mandota is the extreme example. They want anybody to build there. So they took away all their fees. So you know maybe we could reduce the fee. The council would have to decide they want to do that to promote some duplexes, some apartments or something like that. And hopefully we won't have to do that. Hopefully all this talk we've been doing the last few months, we're going to see that happen at these fees. Hopefully. So uh is there any other Was there any any questions else? Did we answer everything? Did it

Stacy? Did you write down those questions? Did we answer everything? Um, I think we got everything. Okay. Yes. Okay. Thank you all very much. Now, I'll turn it to the council. Any questions on this to staff or you want to entertain a motion? And that motion would be I have a question. Sure. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Just more of a comment, I suppose. Uh these fees these are generally passed on in the cost of the sale of the home. Is that correct or not? Council member sorry

it was on. Okay. So are these costs then passed on to the cost of the sale of a home? So then the buyer is paying these fees. Correct. generally um that is part of the bottom line um that the developer um is going to incorporate within the cost of of the home. Um and um in an in terms of say multifamily and a project that um may not be sold uh wouldn't have a new owner purchasing it and having those fees incorporated. that's going to be amvertised over uh a certain period of time and based on the amount of units.

Okay. Um now again, maybe I'm just thinking out loud, but I've heard the term that these multi- family units, multi-residential units don't pencil out. Is this a fee that could help entice developers to build some of those uh affordable homes, multi-family units? Is that something that uh hopefully you can bring to uh the council later on as to how we can again entice some of these uh lowerc cost units? Um I think it could potentially and city manager if you'd like to speak that

yeah council member I think we definitely can bring that back. Um just for the sake of the public hearing unfortunately we will not be able to defer things at the moment. This will strictly be for the ENR and the adjustment. However, it is our plan that once we have the master plan back to council and you adopt those master plan and understand the cost of a total infrastructure expansions, that would be the time then we re-update our nexus. That would be the perfect time then to say okay well council really interested in affordable housings and things. What can we do to that front? Maybe directing staff at the time then to go after grant to then bridge usually one of the biggest costs is traffic um or frontage improvement. those are something that we can go after grant for or looking at way to pre-built those so that when affordable housing do come they don't have that cost burden of that upfront so usually most community do that and I think previously um our our um um finance directors also brought an item to council that there are other way to finance those improvements through a bolt programs or or financing to CFD to where it can lessen the upfront cost at the time as well but those would be at the time of the new nexus um that would come then the council after the the master plan.

Perfect. Thank you. Thank you both for that edification. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And also just want to on top of this fee is also the school fee. Yes. And it's close to 30,000, isn't it?

So, uh, we negotiated four times this the legal fee for schools in 2005, I think. And because school we couldn't build schools and the state wasn't stepping up, so we did that and that's in place today. So, that's on top of it. And, uh, you brought up a point. Uh, I think a lot of the I've heard that same thing, council member. Yeah. Llamas, that uh, you heard that it doesn't pencil out. I think the tide's turning a little bit on that because there was a long time there that they could not even get loans on apartments. It was just not happening. So, there's a lot of that going on now. So hopefully it'll come back to us and we can work on it. Any other questions? Not a question, mayor, but just a statement uh with your um edification on the tide turning and I think that may have a lot to do with the mandates in California uh where the um institutions who are loaning developers may be more likely to look at this because there is this pressure on uh municipalities to uh provide that type of uh product in their city.

Very good point. And before the state took away our redevelopment agency, we used to do those things that Neron said, we used to be able to do frontage. Uh on 152, we've paid for some sidewalks to help get businesses to come in. We could do now the state took that away from us, too. So that's the state. Any other questions or would can I entertain a motion? Is this the one with the first reading? First reading and introduction. Yeah. Uh oh. Adopt the resolution.

Yes. Okay. So, I'd like to make a a motion to approve uh resolution number 7082 as read by title. I'll second. Okay. We have a motion and a second for resolution 7082 as stated. Any further questions or comments? All in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed.

Eyes have it. Okay. We removed item B. So, we'll move on to item 10, consideration of adoption of city council resolution 7083, approving the professional services agreement between the city of Laspanis and BAE Urban Economics Incorporated to perform a market rental rate study and authorizing the city manager to execute the agreement. With this, we'll go to our finance director, Moreno. Minnie.

Good evening, mayor and city council. This um item was to be on consent and somehow it got on the agenda. So I'll give you a brief report. Um per the recommendation of mayor prompamp Lewis and the consensus of the city council to conduct a market rental rate study. This item before you is a request for approval of the professional services agreement with BAE urban economics inc referred to from here on BAE. The study will ensure city-owned properties are priced appropriately and reflect current market conditions. BAE was selected as the most qualified proposer through the RFP process. As part of the analysis, staff and BAE will jointly identify and agree on comparable public agencies in the surrounding cities and counties, including a review of policies related to reduced rent and cost recovery. The total cost is 29,960 and is fully budgeted. Staff's recommendation is for approval.

Okay. Thank you very much. And with that, I'll turn it to the public. Anyone would like to speak on this item, please come forward to the podium at this time. Okay. Not seeing anyone coming forward. We'll turn it to the council. Mayor Prom, I'm sure you have something to say about it. What's your deal? Um, I just had a question in regards to the third paragraph from the bottom just uh above the fiscal impact in in the middle where it says for uh for public and community serving uh properties. The analysis may also include information from other public agencies and a review of policies uh related to reduced rent and cost recovery. um other public agencies. Is that outside of the city? I I'm not quite sure what that means.

Yes, that'll be other other cities and counties um that are comparable. Uh BAE and city staff will be reviewing those uh comparable agencies or comparable cities and counties and um agreeing uh to be able to do the analysis. We would have to agree on the on what counties or what cities that we're going to be using. So, if the council does have any particular cities you do not want, you can let me know. Um, and staff will review with BAE on who the comparable cities that they're recommending and we'll come up to an agreement on what we think is comparable.

So, are there some examples that staff can provide to council for consideration? Because in my thoughts, I'm thinking, you know, looking at this company and uh some of the um some of the examples of cities that they've worked with are San Francisco, two examples in there. Uh Oakland, um that's why the word in there is comparable. Yeah, we're not

But those those areas are, you know, income wise are very high compared to where we are. and certainly Davis, California. I don't want us to be using them as a uh a target to make an analysis for what we're going to charge. Um our our market is different here and what we can afford as a city for subsidy might be totally different than what they're able to afford in those areas. So, um

we are going to be looking at surrounding areas. So, we are going to be coming up with a list um and that'll be part of our kickoff uh with them. Um and we we both staff and them will will agree on on who we select and our consideration will be that it'll be in the surrounding areas and they are they are to be comparable. So, you know, again, I I would hope that staff would help counsel out uh to in the search of comparable cities, what you're going to look at to send us examples to us in the report process uh when it comes back to council again to give us an idea of what we're going to be looking at and what you've selected.

Okay. And I think um I think that was that was my biggest concern uh regarding this. I'm very happy that this is coming forward because it takes us out of the uh position of trying to guess what we should be charging people for public property that is being rented or leased and um it gives us a policy to follow and when it needs to be updated regarded to regarding to the economy or the city status then we're able to do that. Thank you may any other comments? We have a motion, please, to adopt the resolution as submitted.

Okay, mayor. I'd like to make a motion to adopt resolution number 7083 as read by title. Have a second. Second. Okay, we have a motion and a second for resolution 7083 as stated. Any further questions or comments from the council? Not hearing any. All in favor signify by saying I. I opposed. Eyes have it. Next item 11, consideration of adoption of the city resolution 7084, ratifying the city manager's approval of the employment agreement with human resources director Isabelle Carlos. With this, we'll go to our city manager.

Thank you, mayor. Uh I am proud to present this items as we have been looking forwards to having a permanent spot filled for our human resources director for quite some time now since the retirements of our beloved city clerk and human resources director. Um so as you all come to know Isabelle Carlos has been our interim uh human resource director since January. Um Isabelle brings over 20 year of municipal human resources risk managements and administration experience uh with her. She previously worked for the city of Paris and city of Milbury both in the human resources um uh risk managements as well as assistant city manager um for both of those city um it she's been instrumentals in providing support and guidance to the department but more importantly a different perspective and a different way of doing business. Um although our city clerk's uh Lucy Melanie has left a pretty big shoe to fill, um I strongly believe that Isabelle will be able to continue this momentum and take our city to the next level. Um her entire contracts um is attached to the agenda tonight. Um her salaries will be at $14,963.50 per month or $179,560 annually and that contract is to be effective April 16, 2026. Um, Isabelle will also be eligible for all benefits for exempt employee as defined in our adopted personnel rules. This include vacation, sick leave, admin leave, medical, dental, visions, and life insurance, and the retirement benefits.

Okay, with that, before I turn it to the council, anybody from the public would like to speak on this item, please come forward. I don't see anyone coming forward. Isabelle, you must have something to say. Actually, um I had prepared a a thank you, but it it hasn't been approved. But I'll I'll go ahead and and um and uh and say my my thank you. Honorable mayor, madame uh mayor prom and members of the city council, I'm truly honored to have been selected to serve as the city's human resources director. As you know, I first joined uh the the city as interim director in late January, and I was met with a warm and professional welcome first by uh city manager uh Tan and and the HR team as well, followed by the entire uh city management team and every employee that I encountered during those initial weeks was uh had a warm welcome and um it it was specific speifically that sense of professionalism and collaborative spirit that inspired me to apply for the permanent role and I feel privileged to now finally officially become part of the Laspanos team. Um, while I haven't been able to I haven't had the pleasure to meet every single employee out there, um, I do look forward to continuing to visit the the various city departments to connect with staff and to get uh to know each individual um employee out there. Thank you, city manager Tan, for placing your trust in me. And thank you to to this council for for this uh the approval of of this uh item tonight. Um I I do look forward to providing leadership and supporting the

growth and professional development of uh our employees and ultimately uh my aim is to serve as a a steadfast and strategic partner for the management team and for this council and I would like to continue to contribute to the city's overall vision and the city's goals. Thank you. Thank you. Any comments from the council or do I have a motion? I'll make a motion to adopt resolution number 7084 as read by title. Second.

Here we have a motion to second. Any questions or comments? Not hearing any. All in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed. Eyes have it. Congratulations and welcome. I know it's a it's a new world out there between Mary and you keeping us out of trouble, making sure we do everything right, especially, you know, with our employees. Make sure we do correctly. Yeah, it's it's a really different world now. So, congratulations and welcome to the city of Lasanis. Okay, we will move on now. Let's see. We are at item 12. Correct. Consideration of adoption of city council resolution number 7085 adopting a city clerk and city treasurer council meeting attendance and duty policy. And with this we'll go to our city attorney Mary Ler.

Thank you mayor and members of council. Before you is a resolution related to a policy adoption for the city clerk and city treasurer council meeting attendance and duties. This policy establishes clear expectations for the city clerk and city treasures attendance at city council meetings and outlines the statutory duties of each in accordance with applicable law. Adoption of such a policy is consistent with established city practice and is not unusual. Historically, the city has implemented similar attendance requirements for commission members that is found at municipal code section 2-2.305, which sets forth attendance standards for the commission members and authorizes the city council to declare a position vacant if a member is absent for three consecutive regular meetings. Additionally, the city council itself is subject to attendance requirements under the California government code section 36513. This policy mimics that government code section since both of these positions are electeds. This provides that a council member's office becomes vacant if a member's absent without permission from all regular city council meetings for 60 consecutive days. And with that, I'm available for any questions.

Okay. With that, I'll open up to the public first. Any members of the public would like to talk to the city council on this item? Basically, we're it's a cleanup process of making all elected officials have the same policy. Anyone like to speak on it? Okay, we turn it back to city council. Any comments? Then if I have a motion, please like the uh adopt city council resolution number 7085 by as read.

Second. Okay, we have a motion and a second for resolution 7085 is stated. Any further questions or comments? Not hearing any. All in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed? Eyes have it. Next items. Item 13 is cancellation of the regular city council meeting scheduled for Wednesday, May 6th, 2026 due to a lack of agenda items. And you want to say anything about this?

Yes, mayor. Um we will be cancelling the May 6 um regular council meeting. However, um as we have previously discussed, we will be having a special meeting on May 5th. Um as traditionally since last year um we typically have a pretty lengthy uh budgets and goal setting sessions um prior to adoptions of the budget. Um for this year it will be scheduled for May 5th. Um so we'll be prepared for hundreds of slides and about seven hours of presentation. So, um, that's why we're canceling the May 6th meeting. Thank you, mayor. Okay. Any questions? Anybody from the public would like to talk to us about that? Question. Sure.

Um, Kathy Ballard, and I have a question. Um, your May 5th meeting, where is that going to be held? And is the public allowed to view you and all your slides? Absolutely. Um, all of the our council meetings um will be broadcast and it actually will be here. So instead of at the police uh uh um uh facility like we did last time, it will be here and it will be live stream live streams. Okay. Thank you. Transparency in the budget process.

Any further comments from the committee? Okay. We'll turn it back to the city council. I can have a motion for let's see to cancellation of the city council meeting for May 6, 2026. So moved. We have a second. Second. Okay. We have a motion and a second as stated. All in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed. Eyes have it. Okay. We'll go we'll start up with our city departments reports and we'll go with our community economics development director, Stacy Suzilms.

Thank you again, Mr. Mayor. So, we have two public hearing notices um that will be um well, two public hearings that will be held next Wednesday um on April 22nd. Uh the first is for Watermill Express. Uh they will be developing a 106 square ft uh water selfservice water retail facility. Uh this is at 336 North Mercy Springs Road. So, right in between the new Starbucks and the empty vacant building, uh this will be like a little kiosk area that you will be able to get uh purified water and ice. Um it'll have two uh dispensers for purified water and one dispenser for ice. Uh the second public hearing is for our accessory dwelling unit ordinance. It's an amendment um to be in alliance in in accordance, excuse me, with state law and all of the recent housing laws that have been adopted. It's just to make sure that the city is in compliance. That concludes my report.

Great. Thank you very much. Finance Director Minnie Moreno.

I can't reach. Sorry. Uh just uh giving you an update. Uh we are in the middle of budget and so we are uh working with all of our departments to get all of their budget numbers in so we can go ahead and meet with them and then present to you on the 5th and then uh bring it back to council on June 3rd. And so we're very very excited. This is my second year. Last year I came in April and was head first um into the budget. And so, um, very excited to be able to do the second round and just making sure that, uh, we're providing the best, uh, service to our community, um, through the budget process and again, transparency. That's all I

Thank you very much, Minnie. Fire Chief Paul Twalla. Paul, good evening, Mayor and Council and staff. Uh, a couple things with fire department. Uh, we have started weed abatement. to the weed abatement program. We were able to streamline it this year with a weed abatement uh application that's going to help us uh expedite some of the weed abatement notices going out. So that it's really helpful and the county GS really uh helped us out with that. Um we have our autism event this Saturday also. So, we have some time come by and then obviously uh with my retirement coming up uh I've been really working with the assistant chief Doran Bush to kind of prep him uh to take that interim role. So, but I appreciate the support from council um and from staff and and from the city manager also. Thank you, friend. I appreciate it. So, thank you.

Appreciate you too, Chief, very much. Human resources director Isabella Carlos. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of the council. Just on behalf of the uh the HR department, um want to congratulate our new hire, our six recently promoted employees, and our employee of the month. Thank you. That's my report. Thank you very much, Park and Recreation, Mr. Joe.

All right, I got a few items. Um we have a couple volunteer days coming up. Um one this Friday, um Saturn Memorial is um putting together about 30 to 50 volunteers. are going to be at um Verona Park on Friday from 9:00 to 11:00 um painting the court there. And then we're going to have one for the public on May 9th from 9 to 11 at College Greens Park. Uh Verona is at 2200 Polarmo Drive and College Greens at 1815 uh Scripps Drive. Um we'll also be um at the autism event. It's definitely one of the staff's favorite events. Um so appreciate Fire's work there. Um, uh, volleyball, volleyball, summer volleyball is registering now, as is fall, um, youth soccer. Fall youth soccer is definitely one that fills up. Um, so please, um, get in there and register. Um, pickle ball is hosted, uh, is going to be hosting a grand opening on May 30th. Um, so we'll be getting the flyers and invitations out for that here shortly. Um, you'll start to see the paint on the court uh, beginning next week, so it'll be exciting next week. And then I'm going to steal one from William and say thank you to his street staff because next week you'll see that the street staff um will be out grinding some areas along the canal trail. Um and that is in anticipation of the overlay that staff will be doing. So huge thanks to to Williams team with the streets. Thank you. Joe, if you could uh email council those dates for those painting courts. It's good to I'd like to go out there and say thank you to the public for doing that. And uh okay, so that goes park and recreation. We'll go to police chief Ray Rea. Chief,

good evening again. Uh mayor, councel, so a couple updates um staffing at the police department. So this week uh we met with uh some candidates. We gave one dispatch candidate a conditional offer, a cso a conditional offer, and we have a new police officer candidate in the background. So that's always good news. um still trying to highlight and notify the public that we have a traffic unit uh that is out now working. Um I hear them all day long on the radio. I pass some of their stops. I see them out on patrol. So just a reminder um one of the biggest um I would say things that they are enforcing right now is distracted driving. And being motorcycles, they can split lanes. So, as cars are waiting for the light to turn red, those motorcycles might come up and sometimes they are tapping on your window and telling you to pull over because people are on their phones. So, I would hate see anybody in here get a traffic ticket or something like that. It's so avoidable and it's dangerous. So, just please watch your speed, wear your seat belt, watch the distracted driving in town. And um just a reminder also the public that as the weather starts to change, we're going to get nicer weather. Um we have people that walk around our town and they have bad intentions in mind. So uh remember, lock your car doors at night. Lock them when you go to the store. Don't leave valuables in plain sight. Don't leave your phones, uh wallets, purses out, um cellular phones. Uh those things are very pre preventable. Lock your doors. keep your valuables um out in plain sight and if you see something suspicious, please call us. Um we are already preparing for the Mayday Fair and we already had our first meeting for uh National Night Out coming this summer. And then once again,

congratulations to the police explorers. What a great program. very proud of these young men and women um who already at this age are choosing to serve uh in the noble profession of law enforcement as volunteers and my hope is that some of them go on to eventually become successful in the area of policing or whatever else they decide to do. Thank you. Thank you, Chief Public Works Director William V.

Uh good evening, Mayor and City Council. I'm going to keep it short. First of all, congratulations Isabelle on your new appointment for as the HR director. And I have three I have three employees celebrating um anniversaries with the city this month. Um one is Gabriel Cervantis. He he started in 2022, so this is four years. He's a utilities uh he was a utilities maintenance worker. He's now out at the treatment plant. Um we have actually I have four. Uh Patrick Aaron Bell who was here earlier um celebrated nine years uh on the 17th I believe or will be on the 17th. Um Randy Daniels also nine years. He started in 2017. He works in solid waste. And Jelene Dlo who was recently in the last couple months promoted to the engineering's operations manager celebrated 25 years with the city. So, congratulations to them and that concludes my report.

Great. Thank you, William. City attorney report. Mary Learner. Thank you, mayor and members of council. Just a quick update on the city attorney web page. Um, we've now added links that have animal related resources for the public. And I want to thank Blanch George for assisting both me and Alex with um a list of those resources. That's it. Okay. Thank you, city manager. Eront,

you would think I'd be out of report after the state of the city. Um, but I do have more. Um, one is that I'm very, very excited that this Friday, April 17, we will be hosting PCO High School to come to city council chamber for a mock city council. It's an opportunity for us um to kind of shows our next generations of what it's like to be involved in local government and how local governments are making decisions. Um so we are expecting close to 100 students to come to council chambers. They have just recently elected their mayor and city council from their classes. Um so those folks are now looking at the council agenda um looking at the staff report and ready to make some decision for Colorado uh for the future of Colorado Ballpark. So we're very excited for that and I'd like to invite um all the city council members as well as uh school board of trustee to participate in providing this great learning opportunity. Um, Council Member Chavez is not here today, but um, we just posted his flyers. Um, he will be hosting a neighborhood outreach events at the community center uh, the community center lounge. That is this Sunday, April 19 at 100 p.m. and all of the residents of district um, one is invited. Um, I am so proud of our teams uh, for the state of the city. Um, that was well attended for over 106.5 resident um, attended that event. Thank you Leo for being that.5 even though he's definitely a fullg grown person um by now. Um now you know there was this quote that's kind of always kind of lingered in my head um is that a team is only as strong as his weakest member and as it relate to our state of the union uh state of the city address um yesterday I am glad that that weakest member on the weakest um part of the presentation was a trail mix. So, we'll continue to do better. Um, we'll take that comment to heart and we'll make sure that we'll have scoops um all around and um maybe have a better snacks

next time. But I appreciate um you know with all joking aside to see all of our member agency and that for all of them to understand the message from the state of the city and that is unity plan and visions for what ahead to to Lasanis. um our staff as as a team um we're not afraid of the work is that we very much look forward to all of those extra uh uh project that coming our way to continue to make our um our city better. Um Chief Paula, I'm sad that you are not going to be part of that um uh journey, but I think you leave a very long lasting legacy. So, we look forward to celebrating that um with you. Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you very much. And now we'll turn to our city council reports. We'll start off with district 2, Rafuio Giannis.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um, I want to again congratulate Haley Leonard as being named the employee of the month. Congratulations to that. Um, and that's for district three for Mr. Chavez. Um, I'd like to announce again that uh the Chamber of Commerce is hosting the street fair this Saturday and they are still accepting applications for vendors. Uh, and I want to thank the city staff for putting on the state of the city. It's a lot of work, uh, a lot of planning, a lot of last minute, oops, who got this or who was supposed to get that. So, I it went up very well. And again, I thank the the mayor for hosting that. Look forward to having more of those events because it's very important that the uh, community uh, learns what's happening in a less formal atmosphere such as the state of the city was. So, again, thank you very much. Um, this last uh Saturday, as you may know, I hosted my uh community outreach event over at the uh park in uh district 2 and uh I very much appreciate the uh community that came up a lot of questions, a lot of interest in what's happening in the city u and I think they came away with the answers that they're looking for uh that we could could give. So again, I I look forward to more of those. And again, uh, it's vitally important that the community participate in the decisions, and the only way you can do that is by showing up to these events. Um, I want to thank the police chief for initiating that uh, traffic control unit. It's very much appreciated. I look forward to a more coordinated traffic pattern in the city as our residents get used to the uh the

rules enforcement that are much needed especially during the uh schools uh the congregation point for the schools either coming into school or letting out of school. Um and that's all I have. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. And we'll go to um let's see Marcus Chavez is excused. is absent. District three. We'll go to Mayor Prom. Deborah Lewis, District 4.

Thank you, Mayor. Um, as uh, Chief Tallala mentioned, we have the autism day this Saturday and it is from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. just to let the public know. So, they don't show up at 5:00 and there's nobody there. It's usually a lot of fun. The kids enjoy themselves and um the the fire department does a really good job of putting on this event. So, thank you uh for hosting that again this year. Um mayor and to uh our city manager and to his staff who put on the uh state of the city address. It went off very well and the community center looked beautiful. Um, I'm was really proud of of how everything turned out and I think all of our department heads did a wonderful job and making their presentations to talk about what we're doing in our city. So, thank you, mayor, for allowing uh the council to participate in this. Um, as a final reminder, um, the Sanwaqin Valley along with, um, Valley Can will have a tune in and tuneup event on Saturday, May 9th from 7:45 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. at the Los Banos Fairground. And this is for uh smog repairs uh for vehicles that are having difficulty uh um passing smog for their vehicles. Um if if the vehicle um if it's really too old, you you may not pass it at all. But if it's still within a certain age range, there is uh uh grant money afforded to some of the residents uh who need help uh to uh get their vehicles tuned up hopefully to get

them passed and smoke. So again, that's going to be on May 9th at the fairgrounds from 7:45 to 11:45 a.m. Um, congratulations to Director Isabelle Carlos. Now, I'm known to give people different names, and you may fall into that category. I've given director Moreno a new name, and I I still get ribbed by that. I understand although I think there was wax in our uh city manager's ear last night but I understand uh for Chief Tala I gave you a new name as well. So um you have a gift coming to you uh in regards to that. So forgive me if I call you something other than what your name is. I I don't intentionally do that but we make jokes about it here and I'm the queen of giving you a new name. So congratulations on your appointment and welcome aboard. Okay. And uh the one other um thing I'd like to request is perhaps on our next uh council agenda is to uh consider uh whether or not council um should move our treasur position under the finance department. Um, generally, at least since I've been on, I'm not sure how it was, mayor, when you were in that position before, um, the treasury position was always held by an employee. And, um, it's mostly a ceremonial position. Um, so I'm just requesting

that it be put on, uh, an upcoming agenda for consideration as to whether or not we should move this position under the finance department. And if if the council feels so, uh, then that would have to go to the public for a vote. So, is there consensus then from the council mayor to to put that on the next agenda? I believe that's how the council Yes. Okay. And so, we have an elected official right now. So, uh, Lucy's here to her term is till when? 28. Till 2028. So it could go on after that then if we decided to do

well and that would be the discussion that you would have. We would agendaize the item for discussion direction. Yeah. I think her term is up 26. Yeah. And we can check that and that will be part of the staff report. But it's important that we have that discussion once it's been agenda. Okay. Well, everybody okay with that? We're going to agree to put it on the agenda. Is that correct? Just put it on the agenda. That's all. Not agree to anything. Just put it on the agenda. Sure. We're always willing to talk about it. Yeah. Anything else, Mayor Prom? No, that's it. Thank you. Okay. District one, Mitsy Perez.

Thank you. Uh well, first I'd like to thank all of our staff, um the department heads for meeting not only with myself, but um Council Member Yamas this past week and making the time to educate us more on the processes that go on and all the things in the background that we don't get to see, right? Um I thought that was very educational and I'm hoping to keep doing that from time to time in the future. I love hearing all the updates and just really getting to know what's going on. it's very beneficial when uh residents ask us. That way we're well informed. Um so I do want to thank you for taking the time to do that for us. Um as well as uh putting on the event yesterday. I think that we should be doing that more often. Maybe not as big, but I think it's very important for the community, you know, when it comes to transparency and trust within the community. So I really enjoyed um how it went and I really like the fact um we got a good turnout. So, I'm looking forward to more of those events. Um, just another quick reminder about my Parkside chat as well. It will be on um April 25th. It'll be at 11:00 a.m. at Skyllark Park. And even though it is for District 1, I always say everyone is invited. Um because like we have all said, we represent the whole city. So, everyone is welcome. Thank you.

Thank you very much. And I'll start off by saying thanking staff, department heads, our city manager, and the council for last night's city of the state of the city address. I think it went that was uh much bigger than I used to do it way back when and we used to do it here in the council chambers and I think think for the first one it went really well. I made a lot of notes so it'll get even better in the future and I appreciate the turnout by the public. I thought I was very impressed with that too. Uh tomorrow I have MCAG uh in Merrced. I have LAFCO meeting in Merrced tomorrow. I'll report on those. Uh Saturday I have the Queen's dinner representing the city on April 18th at the fairgrounds. Want to remind everybody May 29th through April oops April 29th through May 3rd is the fair in Los Banis going back over a hundred years. Um, and so I hope to see everybody at the fair. That's our big event of the year and fair board does a good job, the county does a good job with that. Again, uh, our city manager talked about student council on Friday. On May 7th will be a day of national day of prayer. It'll be at 12:00 noon here in the council chambers. Like to invite everybody to that. Um and let's see the forum will be Monday at 700 p.m. for the supervisors running for supervisor for district 5. Hopefully that gets that gets well attended also. So um I want to talk a little bit about some questions that were were asked today about the wage and stuff. And I first of all I really appreciate everybody's talking to us. It really makes a difference. We need to hear from you. Um, so the issue I'll start with

planning commission uh to make you can't require a a council member to be a planning commissioner first because planning commissioner is an appointed position. So if I didn't want this person over here to ever run for council, I would make sure that person would never be on the planning commission. So that's not fair and that's why it's done that way. You'd act I don't know if it's even possible to have planning commission as a vote of the people. So that's sort of the type of that of course this council would never do that but you don't know what the future holds. So that's sort of the thing on on that transparency when you uh when Rossmos talked about uh when it was first brought up about the wage to the council. I'll I'll tell you the whole story. So, as you all know, I've talked about it a lot. I was mayor for 12 years back in the 90s and the early 2000s. Maybe you don't know that, but I'm telling you now, but I think you all know that the wage was the same wage back then. Never thought a thing about it. I thought it was fine. I get reelected in 24 and it is a new world. I'm telling you. Here's my schedule for this week. Now, I'm only required to go to two meetings a month. This these two meetings. And if you want city council members to just come to the city council meeting, that's what we don't want. And I would never do that. Here's my me. This is me this week. And I have a full-time job. Okay. Monday, we went over the state of the city address. Tuesday, um, we did the state of the city address. Wednesday, I've already had one meeting with the Peninsula Clean Energy, the marketing, their executive board committee committee meeting I'm on. And then we have our city council meeting

tonight. Thursday, I have two meetings in Mrs. LFCO MCAG with travel time and those two meetings, that's six hours. Uh, Friday, student council. Saturday, I'll be representing the city at the Queen's dinner dance. Sunday, I'm at the park with Marcus Chavez at at Las Community Center at 1 PM talking to the community. That's this week. Now, that's not You go back 20 years ago when I was mayor the first time, that's 10 times as much as the work I had back then. And and so, uh, it's a new world out there. It's been 37 years since there's been any pay increase. I brought it up for discussion if because now with the Brown Act, I can't before and I'm going to get off this. I'm going to talk about the Brown Act now a little bit. She's telling me I can't talk too much about it because it's an agenda item. I Before I used to talk to the council, I'd email the council. Hey, not what you think about this agenda item, how you're going to vote. I would never do that. But what do you feel about this? what do you feel about this subject, this issue? Oh, yeah, we should talk about it. We'd bring it forward. I can't talk to anybody about anything anymore. And everybody, you know, and so we have to be real careful. So, I asked to be put on the agenda for discussion only knowing that if this council decided to go any further with it, it would be put on a meeting with a public hearing all laid out. again a second it would have have to have a second public hearing at a second meeting before we took action. So that's that's how that fell into place. But uh it's a new world out there and you want a mayor and council to be involved cuz people need you need a

network. You need the votes from the county and the other cities to get money into our city. And I have to be present at these places. I asked for this job. I love doing this. I wouldn't I love doing this. I would not change a thing. But I know in the future things are going to change. So anyway, that's that. I And I'm told I can't talk too much more about it because it's going to be on a future agenda item and we have to all be careful answering any questions if you know what's on the agenda in the future. So anyway, with that, um, again, I appreciate everybody speaking. I don't know when it will come back. We will advertise it again and we'll have further discussion on it and I'll make sure everything's laid out salary wise. Okay, with that, uh, we will be going into close session with public employee performance evaluation. The title is a city attorney pursuant to government code section 54957B. And with that, we'll if anything takes place in close session, we'll be coming out here and doing a a vote to the public. I appreciate everybody that spoke to us this evening. I really do appreciate it. And if you stay with us, we'll be out, not sure when, after close session. Thank you very much.

Okay, if you're still joining us, we appreciate it. Uh, under close session, item 18, public employee performance evaluation, title city attorney pursuant to government code 54 54957B. There will be no nothing to report and no vote taken. So this meeting is adjourned. Thank you. At 8:58. Yes, at 858. Thank you, Mary. You're welcome.